The Story of Godfrey Nims 



OF 



OLD DEERFIELD. 



"The Story of Godfrey Nims," 



as read to 



The Nims Family Association, 



at 



Deerfield, Massachusetts, 



on 



August 13, 1914, 



by 



Francis Nims Thompson. 



F7^ 



Copyright, 1914 

BT 

Francis Nimb Thompson 



All Rights Reserved 



©Cl,A3700n8 

AUG 14 1914 



GODFREY NIMS. 



Often has Old Deerfield been the shrine toward which a band 
of pilgrims has been drawn by some common interest; bnt never 
before has the family of Godfrey Nims gathered in this way on 
his home lot to honor his memory. 

Children of his children, we have come home to tread the 
soil upon which fell the sweat, tears and blood of our fathers 
and mothers in those early days of labor, suffering and savage 
murder. Periods of calm there were too, when the spinning 
wheels hummed in the primitive homes of this little village and 
the scythes swung and swished in the golden fields out yonder, 
and the settlers forgot for a time that the dark bordering for- 
ests hid wild beasts formed as men but fierce as fiends. 

Here, Godfrey Nims builded — and, after fire devoured it, 
builded anew — his home, as pioneers have built and will build 
while there shall remain a frontier; and he and those about 
his hearth loved it as we love that for which we have planned 
and worked. As our minds revive the personality of our com- 
mon ancestor, that common blood which inseparably links us 
should thrill in our veins. This Nims lot was, not so long ago, 
the stage upon which was enacted one of those pioneer tragedies 
too blood-curdling and awful to adeciuately picture in words: — 
the naked Indians — painted demons — slaughtering children by 
the lurid light of a flaring home, amid the din of savage yells 
and the shrieks of terrified w^omen and of children butchered 
or burned. 

"Not so long ago" — for I remember my grandfather Nims, 
big in both brawn and brain, and all heart; his grandfather 
was the Greenfield settler, and his grandfather was the head 
of that suffering household. So recently did the Great Spirit 
release the first waves of civilization to break on the eastern 
shore of this broad land, and so recently did his red children, 
wild denizens of the wilderness, seek to turn that irresistible 
flood back from the land their fathers had possessed for un- 
counted generations. 



Long enough ago, however, were these events, to be veiled 
in that mist of time which, half concealing, half revealing, 
lures curiosity and charms imagination. The Honorable 
George Sheldon, in our well-thumbed bible of local history, 
says: — "A family tradition places Godfrey Nims here, as 
third settler before 1671." "Keal estate here was sold to 
such men only as were approved by Dedham. " He "bought 
liome lot No. 85, in 1674, but I do not find him living here 
until the Permanent Settlement." In "True Stories of New 
England Captives" Miss C. Alice Baker says:— "The third 
settler, Godfrey Nims, came from Northampton to Deerfield 
HI 1670, living there 'in a sort of house where he had dug a 
hole or cellar in the side hill,' south of Colonel Wilson's. At 
the allotment of the homesteads in 1671, he built a house, on 
what lot is not known." Mr. Sheldon says that in 1704 Thank- 
ful Nims and her husband were living on this Wilson lot "in 
a sort of side-hill cave, which was so covered with snow as to 
escape the observation of the enemy" and that the Nims 
houses burned in 1694 and 1704 each stood "on the site of the 
present Nims house." 

Of the time earlier thrin these dates we find another tra- 
dition, pointing back to France, and a colonial public record 
not inconsistent with the tradition: David Nims, junior, told 
his grandson, the late Brigham Nims of Roxbury, that he had 
l)een told by David, senior, a graiulson of Godfrey, that God- 
frey Nims was a Hnguenot, came to America as a mere lad 
and at first spelled his name Godefroi de Nismes, but changed 
tlio spelling to suit the colonial way of pronouncing it. 
Deacon Zadock Nims of Sullivan received and transmitted a 
similar tradition as to the spelling. 

A few miles north of the IMediterranean and west of the 
Rhone lies the ancient city of Nimes, or Nismes. Now a place 
of seventy or eighty thousand people, and the eai)ital of the 
department of (iai-d, it was the Roman Nemasns. Con- 
(|U('red l)y the Romans 121 y(>ars ])efore Christ, it l)ecame one 
oT the chief provincial cities; was plundered by the Vandals 
in 407, suffered from the West Goths and Saracens, and was 
n\ 1258 united to France. Nimes suffered in the Huguenot 
wars, and was in 1815 the scene of reactionary atrocities 
against the Protestants. I^he city still retains the coat of 
arms used when it w;is a Roman province: This r(>presents a 
I)alm tree, to wliicli a crocodile is chained, and bears the ab- 



breviation Col. Nem. for its old name Colonia Nemasus. Here 
are notable Roman anti(iuities, including an amphitheatre 
which, although one of the oldest buildings in the world, is 
still used in the good old barbaric way. Here, in 1787, was 
born (xuizot, the distinguished French historian and states- 
man ; and here in Nimes, if we may credit tradition, was born, 
sometime about 1650, Godfrey, whom the English in New Eng- 
land called Nims. 

What of the public record? Well, the records tells very 
solemnly, but graphically, of a boy, much out of humor with 
life in an English colony, conspiring with two other young 
scamps to run away to the French; and, when all the good 
folk had gone to meeting, 'ransacking about the house' to find 
the wherewithal to furnish the expedition. An Indian in it, 
too! Can you beat that? Boy all over; and French boy 
at that. If he wasn't Godefroi de Nismes, where did he come 
from and where were all the other Nimses? 

So much for speculation and for sympathy with the boy: 
Now here are the very cold facts, and no sympathy at all: — 
(The first book of Hampshire probate records, at pages 88 and 
91.) 

"Att the County Courte holden Att Springfield Sept: 
24 : 1667 : For holding this Courte there were Present Capt 
John Pynchon One of ye Honnoble Assists of this Collony: 
Also Mr. Henry Clarke Leiut Willm Clarke Leiut Sam '11 Smith 
And Eli Holyoke Recorder Associates and ye Jury were" etc. 
qIq *********** 

"James Bennet, Godfrey Nims & Benoni Stebbins, young 
lads of Northampton being by Northampton Comissionrs bound 
ouer to this Corte to answer for diverse crimes & misdemeanrs 
comitted by them, were brought to this Corte by ye Constable 
of yt Towne wch 3 lads are accused by Robert Bartlett for that 
they gott into his house two Sabbath dayes when all the family 
were at the Pul)like Meeting: On ye first of wch tymes, they 
vizt. Nims & Stebbins did ransack about the house & tooke 
away out of diverse places of the house vist. 24 shillings in 
silver & 7s in Wampum wth the intention to run away to the 
ffrench: Al which is hy them confessed, wch wickednesse of 
theires hath also been accompanyd with frequent lying to ex- 
cuse & justify themselves, especially on Nims his pt, who it 



6 

seemes hath been a ringleader in their vilainys: ffor all wch 
their crimes and misdemeanors this Corte doth Judge yt the 
said 3 lads shalbe well whipt on their naked bodys vizt. Nims 
& Bennet wth 15 lashes apeece & Benoni Stebbins with 11 
lashes. And the said Nims & Stebbins are to pay Robert 
Biirtlett the summe of 41 being accounted treble according to 
law, for what goods he hath lost by their meanes. Also those 
psons that reed any money of any of the said lads, are to 
restore it to the s'd Robert Bartlett. But there being made 
to the Corte an earnest petition & request by Ralfe Hutchin- 
son father-in-law to ye said James Bennet & diverse other 
considerable psons yt the said Bennets corporall punishment 
might be released by reason of his mothers weakness, who it 
is feared may suffer much inconvenioncy thereby, that pun- 
ishment was remitted upon his father-in-law his engaging to 
this Corte to pay ffive pounds to ye County as a fyne for the 
said Bennets offence, wch 51 is to be paid to ye County Treas- 
urer for ye use of ye County. Also John Stebbins, Junior 
being much suspected to have some hand in their plotting to 
run away. This Corte doth ordr ye Comissionrs of Northamp- 
ton to call him before ym & to examine him about that or any 
other thing whereon he is suspected to be guilty wth ye said 
lads, & so act therein according to their discretion, attending 
law. Also they are to call the Indian called Que(iuelatt who 
had a hand in their plott & to deale with him according as 
they fynd." 

Before the year was over the Indian "Queciuelett was 
'whipt 20 hislies' for helping Godfrey Nims and Benoni Steb- 
bins 'about running away to Canada.' " At a court held the 
following March John Stebbins, junior, a brother of Benoni, 
acknowleged that he had been privy to the plot of Bennett 
and Stebbins to run away, and the court, because he had 
concealed his knowledge of it, sentenced him to be "whipt on 
the naked body with ten stripes or else to pay 40s to the 
County Treasurer." His father paid the fine. 

On page 143 of the same book of records it appears that: — 
"At the County Cote holden at Northampton March 25th 
167 2-3 * * * Godfrey Nims * * * James 
Bennett Ze])ediah Williams * * * Benoni Stebbins * * * 
all of Northampton took the Oath of Fidelity to this Governmt." 



There were other names, which I have not copied, but these 
were the three bad boys, now loyal men, with presumably the 
same Zebediah Williams who "sold out his land in Northamp- 
ton, in 1674. lie was here in 1675, and was one of the team- 
sters killed with Lothrop. His widow, Mary, daughter of 
Wm. Miller, married Godfrey Nims" November 26th, 1677. 
In 1692 the Court ordered Patience Miller, as the grandmother 
of Zebediah, junior, "to take him and educate him, or get him 
out for education ' ' ; Init his stepfather, Godfrey Nims, ob- 
jected, and the case was postponed. This Zebediah Williams 
was captured with John Nims and died in Canada. His widow 
married again, as had his mother. His grandmother had mar- 
ried three times. Deerfield in Indian times was no place for 
single blessedness. 

In 1674 Godfrey Nims bought from William Smead, whose 
daughter he married in 1692. the north part of lot No. 25; and 
m 1701 he sold it to his brother-in-law Ebenezer Smead. 

May 19th, 1676, Nims, Bennet and Stebbins proved that 
their "Oath of Fidelity," taken three years earlier, was no 
idle formality; serving, as they did, under Capt. William Tur- 
ner of Boston in the Falls Fight against the Pocumtuck Indians. 
Spurred by the enemy's bold harassment, about 140 whites 
marched in dead of night through the primeval wilderness 
against unknown numbers of a savage tribe. Surprising them 
at the salmon fishing falls near the mouth of Fall river, some 
400 Indians were slain; but the white men lost Capt. Turner, 
James Bennett and forty others. A grave discovered during 
my Iwyhood days, in the gravel bank on tlfe farm of my 
grandfather Nims, is thought by Mr. Sheldon to have been 
that of Capt. Turner, who was shot on the retreat as he rode 
up the west bank of Green river. 

January 6th, 1685, "Godfrey Nims, for five acres want, 
had fourteen acres 'at the south end of the commonly called 
Martins Meadow: that to be his south line: to run in length 
from the Grate river to the Grate hill & so take his breadth 
northerly.' " 

February 5th, 1687, a committee was chosen to measure the 
common fence and lay out to each proprietor his proportion 
on a basis of eleven feet to an acre, and Godfrey Nims was 
assigned 27 rods and 11 feet to maintain. 



8 

The first meeting of the inhabitants of Deerfield which 
was recorded as a "town" meeting "appears to have been held 
December 16th, 1686." Here the names of William Smead 
and Benoni Stebbins again appear, now as two of the six 
selectmen, and among other transactions of this meeting was 
the laying out of wood lots. "A list of the wood lots as they 
were Drawn April 20 1688" shows that "Godfrey Nims" drew 
No. 38 and held 14 cow commons, and that each of his two 
lots at Long Hill was 21 rods wide. In "A List of Wood Lots 
on the Mountain, the first Lot beginning at Deerfield River 
Laying along by the River side: — " Lot No. 1 fell to "Gorfre 
Nims"; who, with his 14 cow commons, was entitled to a lot 
28 rods wide. 

"May 30th, 1689. Att a legal Town meeting in Deerfield 
Godfre Nims was chosen constable for the year ensuing until 
anothr be chosen & sworn. ' ' A month earlier Governor Andros 
had been deposed liy a revolution of the people, and our friend 
Stebbins was one of the selectmen who had sent a representa- 
tive to confer with the "Counsell of Safety". 

December 14th, 1691, Nims was chosen one of the five 
selectmen. This was at a critical time, as the previous month 
"about one hundred and fifty Indians came here from the 
Hudson, complicating affairs, and increasing the alarm." 

Our ancestor was the owner of house lots 27 & 28. The 
numbering of lots began at the north end of the street on the 
west side, and ended at the north end on the east side, and the 
lots were drawn May 14th, 1671. The history of this tract 
and of the buildings on it is worthy a separate paper, and it 
is sufficient to say here that he purchased lot No. 27 in 1692, 
it being conveyed by the administrator of the estate of Ben- 
jamin Barrett to Godfrey Nims, cordwainer. The house 
burned January 4th, 1694; and November 21st of that year 
he bought lot No. 28 from Benjamin Hastings, a carpenter. 
The Nims house stood within the stockade and burned Feb- 
ruary 29th, 1704, and the present house is more than two cen- 
turies old. 



A manuscript, (probably an official report), found among 
the papers of Fritz John Winthrop, governor of Connecticut 
1698 — 1707, and giving "an account of ye destruction at 
Derefd", bears a long list of losses, headed by "The Rev'nd 
Mr. John Williams" and "(Jodfrey Nims"; by which it ap- 
pears that theirs were among the most valuable houses burned, 
and that each lost house and barn and all in them. The white 
church, town office, town hall and school building and the old 
academy building, now ^Memorial Hall, all stand on the Nims 
tract. 

January 4th, 1694, when the Nims house burned, the step- 
son Jeremiah Hull perished. The jury of inquest reported: — 
"The said Jeremiah Hull, being put to bed in a chamber with 
another child, after some time, Henry, said Godfrey Nims's 
son, a boy of about 10 years of age, went into the chamber with 
a light & by accident fired some flax or tow, which fired the 
house. Sd Henry brought down one child, & going up again 
to fetch sd Jeremiah, the chamber was all aflame & before 
other help came, sd Jeremiah was past recovery." Poor little 
Jeremiah was but four years old, and his sister Elizabeth Hull 
was five. Did our little ancestress so narrowly escape death? 
Or was the "one child", whom Henry brought down, Thomas 
Nims — just then the baby of this growing family? 

This year, 1694, Godfrey Nims bought a part of house lot 
No. 1 (at the north end of the street, west side,) from John 
Weller, junior. In 1719 Godfrey's son John owned real estate 
there, and in 1774 Abner Nims sold it for ninety pounds. 

August 21st, 1695, our ancestor and four other men "com- 
ing out in ye Morning on Horses goeing to mil & wth Baggs 
under ym. Had 7 or 8 guns discharged upon ym, unexpectedly, 
& seeing noebody till ye guns were shot of, wherein eminent 
gracious providence appeared that no more mischiefe was done 
to ors. For except Joseph Barnard, who was shot downe off 
his horse and sorely wounded, not one more hurt, wheras ours 
were surprised & ye Indians had time." So John Pynchon 
wrote to Gov. Wm. Stoughton ; and Stephen Williams adds 
to the "Redeemed Captive" a statement that "then N(ims) 
took him up & his horse was shot down and then he was 
mounted behind M(attoon) and came of home." Barnard, 



10 

who was the town clerk of Deerfield, died September sixth, and 
Mr. Sheldon says that his gravestone bears the earliest date in 
the old graveyard. 

That year the meeting- house, thirty feet square, was build- 
ing; and "Att a legal Town Meeting in Deerfd Novemb: 22 
1695 Godfrey Nims was chosen Collector to collect and gather 
two rates yt is to say a Town rate and a Meeting House Rate 
both j\Iade in ye year 1694 which Rates he is to deliver being 
gathered to the Selectmen." He was one of the selectmen in 
1695 and 1696. 

March 3rd, 1701, Godfrey Nims, Sergt. AUyn and Corp. 
Wells were chosen to lay a road to the land on the west side 
of the river. Their report was made June 14th, and they also 
reported a "hie way to ye Green River lands", which high- 
way led through the present Main street of Greenfield, and 
then northerly through Greenfield Meadows, where now live 
Nims decendants of the fifth generation. 

In 1702 Nims and Stebbins were again associated — this 
time on the school committee; the town having in 1698 adopted 
a liberal policy of education, and voted that "a school be con- 
tinued in ye Town : That all heads of families yt have Child- 
ren whether male or female between ye ages of six and ten 
years, shal pay by the poll to sd school whether yd send such 
children to School or not". 

Godfrey Nims had six children by his first wife, Mary Mil 
lei', who was the widow of Zebediah Williams and had a son 
and daughter by her first husband; and the second wife, 
Mehitable Smead, also a widow, had a son and daughter by 
her first husband Jeremiah Hull and five children by Mr. 
Nims. 

Of course the Williams boy and girl were thus half- brother 
and -sister to the ]Miller-Nims children, and step-brother and 
-sister to the Smead-Nims children ; but not related to the Hull 
boy and girl, who were, however, half-brother and -sister to 
the Smead-Nims children, and step-brother and -sister to the 
Miller-Nims children. 



11 

Among them, the four sets of children had but five parents, 
of whom four were ancesters of the Greenfield branch of the 
family, as John Nims (the son of Godfrey by his first wife) 
married Elizabeth Hull (the daughter of Godfrey's second 
wife by her first husband), and their son Thomas went to 
Greenfield, married Esther JMartindale, and assisted in popu- 
lating the new town. 

Godfrey Nims' first wife, Mary, the Widow Williams, had 
two children ; Mary Williams, born December 24th, 1673, whose 
fate I do not know ; and Zebediah Williams, junior, born in 
1675, Avho was captured with his half-brother John Nims in 
1703, and died in Canada in 1706, leaving a widow and two 
children. 

Godfrey's first child, Rebecca, was born and died in August 
1678. John and another Rebecca were born August 14, 1679: 
John was captured October 8, 1703, and escaped May 14, 
1705; married Elizabeth Hull, as stated above; Rebecca mar- 
ried Philip IMattoon January 15, 1702, and was slain with their 
only child in the massacre of 1704. Henry, born April 20, 
1682, was also slain in 1704. Thankful, born August 29, 1684, 
married Benjamin INTunn and they were unharmed at the time 
of the massacre. 

Ebenezer was l)orn ]\Iarch 14, 1687, captured in 1704, re- 
deemed in 1714. 

Their mother died April 27, 1688 ; and, June 27, 1692, their 
father married the Widow Mehitable Hull, whose daughter 
Elizabeth Hull (born December 23, 1688,) was also captured 
in 1704, and after her redemption married John Nims; Mrs. 
Hull's son Jeremiah (born Januarj^ 15, 1690,) was the child 
I)urned in the Nims house in 1694. Thomas Nims was born 
' November 8, 1693, and died September 10, 1697. Mehitable, 
born May 16, 1696, and the twins Mary and Mercy, born Feb- 
ruary 28, 1699, were all liurned in the later house February 
29, 1704. The youngest child, Abigail, born May 27, 1700, 
was captured in 1704 and carried to Canada, "whence she 
came not back." Mrs. Nims, also taken captive, was slain on 
the trail; probably Saturday, March 4, 1704. 



12 

When the flame-lit night of February 29th, 1704, gave 
place to the cold dawn of ]\larch first; and Godfrey Nims, 
standing here, looked upon what had been his own hard-won 
home and was then the smol^;ing funeral pyre of his three little 
daughters, there was left to comfort him but one member of 
his family. 

His eldest son and his step-son captured the fall before; 
His son Henry, aged 22, slain; His eldest daughter and her 
baby boy slain; His wife, his boy Ebenezer, his baby Abigail, 
Elizabeth Hull his step-daughter, and Mattoon his son-in-law, — 
all led away into the night by bloody and brutal savages: 

One alone was there: — Thankful, his daughter, whose snow- 
covered home had concealed its inmates. 

Mrs. Nims and Philip Mattoon were slain on the march. 
Her mother (Elizabeth Smead) and her brother's wife and two 
children were killed. Deerfield sulfered that night. It is 
written : — 

"48 dead. 111 captives in Canada; only 25 men, as many 
women and 75 children, 43 of whom were under ten years of 
age, were left." 

The next year John escaped from the enemy and made his 
long way back to Deerfield; but his father, Godfrey Nims, had 
escaped the bonds of mortality, and his body had been borne 
down the Albany road and laid in the old burying ground 
near the ford of the river, where rest those who hewed their 
own way into the wilderness and blazed a trail for civilization. 

Zebediah Williams remained a captive in Canada and soon 
died. Ebenezer and Elizabeth Hull were redeemed, but Abi- 
gail grew up among the French and Indians, and refused to 
return to New England and protestantism. The fascinating 
stcry of her life is beautifully told, under the title "The Two 
Captives", by Miss Baker, whose genius for accurate research 
was supplemented by the power to read between the lines and 
to express her discoveries and her opinions in most charming 
English. 

In the old Hampshire probate records, book 3, page 127, is 
this entry :—" Power of Administration on the Estate of God- 
frey Nims late of Deerfield Deceasd was Granted on the 10th 
day of April Annoqne Domini: 1705 to Benjamin Mun of sd 
Deerfield— He Having Given Bond for the faithful Discharge 
of his Trust" and on the next page follows: — 



13 



"All Inventory of Godfrey Nims Estate Taken March ye 
12th: 1705. 

One Muskett L 

One pr of pistolls 1 

One Simmeter 
Powder And Lead 
One Coat and 2 Wast 

Coats 1 

One pr Leather Britches 
2 pr Stockins 
A pr of Shooes 
One pr of Boots 
2 Pewter Platters 
One Pot and Pot hooks 
Sixteen yds and a Halfe 

of New Cloath at 2|8d 

p pr yd 2 

One Brass Kittle 
One Iron Kittle 
One pr of And Irons 1 
One Trammel 
One Saddle and Bridle 1 
2 Neckloaths 
One Coverlid 
One pr of Sheets 
One Hatt 

One Barrel of Pork 2 
13 Bnshels of Wheat 
To one Ilomelot Containing Six Acres 
To one Honielot Containing- Two Acres 
To one Lot In Great Meadow Containing Eight Acres 
To one Lot in Great Meadow Containing Seaven Acres. 
To one Lot In the Plain Containing Seven Acres & Halfe 
To Two Lotts In old fort containing Six acres 
To one Lot In Second Division Containing Twelve Acres 
To one Lot In Second Division Containing Four Acres 
To Thirty Acres of Wood Land at the Great River 
The aforesd Inventory being Taken In Deerfield by us Eleazr 
Hawks, Edward Allin, Ebenezer Smead 



12 


To 2 Howes 




L 5 


4 


]\Ieal 




1 4 


10 


One Piece of a 


timber 


3 


Chain 




6 8 




One Horse 




5 


10 


2 oxen 




6 


12 


one Cow 




2 


5 


one Calfe 




14 


3 6 


One Cow 




2 10 


17 


One Cow 




2 6 


7 


One Cow 




2 5 


10 


One Heifer 




1 9 




One Heifer 




1 1 




One Mare Colt 




15 


4 


One Cart and Wheels 


1 12 


6 6 


One Plow and Irons 


16 


10 


One Plow Clevy & 


Pins 2 


6 


One Chain 




5 


3 6 


One Harrow 




8 


12 


By old Irons Burnt 


In the 


4 4 


House which were 


brought to 


13 


Northampton and 


were 


1 Prised 


8 4 


by Medad Pumry 


& John A 


4 


Ward the whole 


they 


Prised 


10 


at five Pounds 






1 19 


April 10th 1705 




5 



14 

Hampshr Ss, April 10th. 1705 Benjamin Mun Adm. on the 
Estate of Godfrey Nims Deceased made oath Before Saml 
Partridge Esqr. Judge of Probate of Wills &c for sd County 
that the aforegoing Inventory was a true one of the Estate of 
sd Deceased So farr as he knows and if more Appear He will 
Readily make Discovery thereof from time to time 

Test John Pynchon Regr. " 
Following the record of the administrator's account on 
page 198, is the following entry, in which appears what must 
have been one of the first attempts by a Massachusetts probate 
court to appoint a receiver of the property of an absentee : — 
"Springfield Januy 11th 170 8-9 As To a Settlement of the 
p]state of Godfrey Nims of Deerfield Deceasd. I order that 
the Admin istrar Have the Dispose of Moveables to Pay the 
Debts and as to the land I settle as follows (viz) To John Nims 
Eldest Son to the Deceased 27 lb. Being a debt due to sd John 
Nims In Right of his wife Elizabeth Hull out of land of sd 
Deceased Also a Doul^le Portion of the Remainder of sd Land 
to sd John Nims, and to Ebenezr Nims, And to Benjamin Mun 
in Right of his wife Thankful Nims, and Abigail Nims Equal 
shares of sd land to be set out to them Equally both as to 
Quantity and Quality according to the The above sd Division by 
Capt. Jonathan Wells Edward Allin Eliezr Hawkes Thomas 
French Ebenezer Smead or any Three of them to be sworn 
Before the Judge of Probates, Ebenezr Nims and Abigail Nims 
share to be under the Improvemt of John Nims and Benjamin 
Mun Till they Return from Captivity or be otherwise Disposed 
according to Law. Sd John Nims and Benjamin Mun to be 
accountable for the Rents of sd lands to sd Ebenezr Nims and 
Abigail Nims, And in Case the Moveables will not Amount to 
Pay the Debts Then Each Legatee to Refund there Ratable 
Part to sd Administrator, And in Case the Moveables Amount 
to more Then The Debts Then to be Divided in proportion as 
abovesd. And in Case John Nims the eldest son see Cause 
to Purchase the Land of the other Three Children he is allowed 
five yeares time to do it in Paying the Just value of the same 
According to a Just Apprizemt to be made at the five yeares 
End by three Indifferent men upon oath as the sd Children shall 
agree or as the Judge of Probate Shall Appoint 

Saml Partridge" 



15 

From these four of Godfrey's children are those today of 
the Nims name or blood descended: John; Thankful; Ebene- 
zer; Abigail. 

JOHN NIMS. 

October 8th, 1703, according to the written account by the 
Reverend Stephen Williams, "Zebediah Williams & John Nims 
went into ye meadow in ye evening to look after creatures, & 
wer ambushed by indians in ye ditch beyond Frary's bridge, 
who fird at ym, but missd ym, and took W. quick, and N ran 
to ye pond, & then returud to ym (fearing to be shot,) ye 
Indians wound cattle and went oft'. Ye men were carried to 
Canada, where W. dyd, & N ran away in ye year 1705, wth 
Joseph petty, Thos Baker and IMartin Kellogue. My father 
escaped narrowly ye nt before at Broughtons hill." By reason 
of this event John was not at Deerfield in 1704 when so many 
of the family were slain. 

October 22nd, 1703, Reverend Solomon Stoddard, writing 
from Northampton to Governor Dudley, adds this postscript 
concerning Godfrey Nims: — 

"Since I wrote: the father of the two Captives belonging 
to Deerfield, has importunately desired me to write to yr Ex'ey 
that you wd endeavor the Redemption of his children — I re- 
quest that if you have any opportunity, you would not be back- 
ward to such a work of mercy." 

Mr. Sheldon says:— "There is a tradition in the Nims 
family, that when DeRouville's expedition was being planned, 
some of the leaders made John Nims the offer to save harm- 
less all of his friends, if he would act as their guide. The 
proposition was joyfully accepted by Nims, with the expecta- 
tion of being able to escape and give seasonable warning. But 
when the matter came to the ears of the Governor, he forth- 
with put a stop to the project, as a dangerous experiment. 
Soon after John Sheldon left Canada for home in 1705, four 
young men, disappointed at not being allowed to return with 
him, made their escape and reached home about June 8th. 



16 

* * * They had no arms, but probably a small 
stock of provisions, and reached our frontier more dead than 
alive from hunger and fatigue." Joseph Petty 's own account 
of this escape, addressied to Rev. Mr. Williams and preserved 
in Memorial Hall, details the incidents and sufferings of their 
journey from Montreal to our frontier in May and June, 1705. 

John Nims was married in 1707 by Rev. John Williams to 
Elizabeth Hull, and they lived on the old homestead. Miss 
Baker says: — "In the summer of 1712, the Canadian governor 
proposed that the English captives in Canada should be 
'brought into or near Deerfield, and that the French prisoners 
should be sent home from thence.' Gov. Dudley ordered Col. 
Partridge to collect the French captives here. When it was 
known in Deerlleld that an escort was to be sent with them, there 
was no lack of volunteers. 'We pitclit upon Lt. Williams' 
says Partridge, 'with the consent of his father, who hath the 
Frentch tongue, Jonath Wells, Jno Nims, an absolute pilot, 
Eliezer Warner * * * and Thos. Frentch, who also hath the 
Frentch tongue, but think of the former (Nims) most apt 
for the design.' The party under command of Lieut. Samuel 
Williams, a youth of twenty-three, started on the 10th of July, 
returning in September with nine English captives. Godfrey 
Nims had died some years before. Ebenezer was still in cap- 
tivity, and John Nims evidently went as the head of the family, 
hoping to effect the release of his brother and sister. I judge 
that in urging Abigail's return, John made the most of the 
provision for her in his father's will, as the story goes in 
Canada that the relatives of the young Elizabeth, who were 
Protestants, and were amply provided with this world's goods, 
knowing that she had been carried to the Sault au Recollect, 
went there and ottered a considerable sum for her ransom, and 
the savages would willingly have given her up if she herself 
had shown any desire to go with her relatives. To her 
brother's entreaties that she would return with him, she re- 
plied that she would rather be a poor captive among Catholics 
than to become the rich heiress of a Protestant family, and 
John came back without his sister and brother." 



17 

John Nims, and his wife Elizabeth, were blessed with a 
dozen children and more than five dozen grandchildren. She 
died September 21st, 1754, aged 66 years; and he died Decem- 
ber 29th, 1762, aged 83; and their son John died October 6th, 
1769, aged 54 ; as we may read on the mossy stones down in the 
old graveyard. 

Of their other sons, Thomas settled in Greenfield, as before 
mentioned; Jeremiah lived in his father's house and was fol- 
lowed by his son Seth, deacon and revolutionary soldier, who 
kept the post office here from 1820 to 1831 in the old house, 
and was in turn followed by his son Edwin, town clerk from 
1832 to 1834 and the father of Mrs. Eunice Kimberly Nims 
Brown, who sold the place in 1894 (after it had been in the 
family for more than two centuries) to Mrs. Silvanus Miller, 
whose daughters are now its hospitable owners. Mrs. Brown's 
maternal grandparents were also descended respectively from 
John Nims, junior, and the fourth brother, Daniel, who re- 
moved to Shelburne. 

Godfrey — John — John — Reuben — Joel — Dirixa — Eunice K. 
Godfrey — John — Jeremiah — Seth — Edwin — Eunice K. 
Godfrey — John — Daniel — Asa — Betsey — Dirixa — Eunice K. 

THANKFUL NIMS MUNN. 
Thankful Nims, at the age of nineteen, married Benjamin 
Munn, aged twenty; and bore him eleven children, most of 
whom were given the names of Godfrey's children. As has 
been stated, the young couple's humble and snow-covered home 
preserved them from death or capture in 1704, when all at 
the Nims home, except her father, were taken. Abigail, named 
for her captive aunt, married Joseph Richardson of Keene; and 
three younger daughters married Northampton, Springfield and 
Medway men. 



18 



EBENEZER NIMS. 

Ebenezer Nims, captured in 1704, was then seventeen years 
old and made the march to Canada, was adopted by a squaw 
and lived at Lorette. Of his romantic marriage to Sarah Hoyt 
(born May 6th, 1686, to David & Sarah Wilson Hoyt) Mr. 
Sheldon says: — 

"The priests urged her to marry. They pertinaciously in- 
sisted upon it as a duty, and had a French officer selected as 
her mate, thus assuring themselves of a permanent resident, 
and popish convert. Professing to be convinced of her duty in 
the matter, Sarah declared one day in public that she would 
be married, if any of her fellow-captives would have her. 
Ebenezer Nims, a life-long companion, at once stepped forward 
and claimed her for his bride. The twain were made one upon 
the spot. The wily priests had met their match, for it is easy 
to believe that this was a prearranged issue on the part of the 
lovers. ' ' 

They and their first son, Ebenezer, came home with Stod- 
dard and Williams in 1714; and it is said that so much at- 
tached to them were the Indians of Lorette that they came to 
Quebec in a body to rescue this family, having heard it had 
been by force taken on board the ship. Ebenezer, junior, is 
supposed to have removed to Keene about 1739. There were 
four other sons, of whom David removed to Keene about 1740, 
and IMoses removed to Connecticut after the Revolution. Elisha 
was killed by Indians at Fort Massachusetts in 1746, and Amasa 
removed to Greenfield. 

It was among the thirty-six or more grand-children of God- 
frey that the dispersement of the Nims name began, as his sons 
had remained in Deerfield. The census records of the United 
States show that in 1790 there were nineteen families named 
Nims: — 15 in ]\fassachusetts, and 4 in New Hampshire, — and 
126 persons in these 19 families. In N. II. Alpheus' family, 
3 males and 3 females, and David's, 6 males and 4 females, all 
of Keene; and in Sullivan were Eliakim's of 2 males and 2 
females, and Zadock's of 4 males and 3 females. 



19 

ABIGAIL NIMS RISING. 

Abigail Nims was captured when less than four years old, 
and her after-life remained a mystery for more than two 
centuries. Then Miss Baker's "Hunt for the Captives" re- 
vealed the record of her life in Canada. The child, "living 
m the wigwam of a squaw of the Mountain" was baptized in 
the Roman Catholic mission on the fifteenth of June, 1704, as 
Mary Elizabeth; was married at the age of fifteen to Josiah 
Rising, a fellow captive; and lived, and (February 19th, 1748,) 
died, among the Christian Indians, leaving eight children. The 
eldest son became a priest, the younger the fattoer of ten 
children. One daughter was a nun, and another a distin- 
guished Lady Superior. 

Thus was the seed of Godfrey Nims sown in the new world. 
Others may tell of its fruitage. Few of the family became 
famous; none notorious. Many beside those here today bless 
the name of the former president of this association. Col. Or- 
mand F. Nims, or remember "Nims battery" which he com- 
manded when the Union called on her sons to protect her: but 
in all generations have the rank and file of the Nims name or 
blood, brave and gentle men and women, fought the good fight 
and whether led by the loud call of trumpet or by the "still, 
small voice" of conscience, advanced civilization. 

It is right and fitting that we should take granite, torn by 
Nature's power from the foundations of the earth and clothed 
by her tenderness with lichens, and set it here — on this home- 
stead — to commemorate those events and typify those qualtities 
which should never be forgotten by any present or future de- 
scendant of Godfrey Nims. 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 



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LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 



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